***The Official Football Manager Thread***

[Suntan Superman]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Right, so MLS rules, they're terrible. There's a limit of 10 "Discovery" players per year, and since it's our first year, literally everyone that joined counts as a "Discovery" player, so I've had mixed luck signing people. So far my acquisitions have been Perry Kitchen, DeAndre Yedlin, DaMarcus Beasley, Oguchi Onyewu, Harry Shipp, Gedion Zelalem(on loan, then on a free), and an additional 2017 Draft class that included a great centreback that I drafted first overall, Valentine Okoro. I managed to acquire Bashkim Kadrii on a permanent basis as well.

So far, it's been a topsy-turvy year, first off I found out that in the year before I started managing Minnesota United, they won the Open Cup with Adrian Heath, so I'm in the CONCACAF Champion's League. Our defence has lived up to Adrian Heath's MLS defence, especially in the beginning, but now we're starting to gel as a team, and our performances are getting better.



Spoilered for size, but I found this and it's been unfortunately helpful:

Spoiler

[Suntan Superman]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***



Whoa there supporters, settle down...

EDIT:

Whoa there board, settle down

[JHedges2]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Jokes aside, has anyone seen a tactic to replicate Arsenal's new 3 at the back?

[Krebstar]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Jokes aside, has anyone seen a tactic to replicate Arsenal's new 3 at the back?

I'm currently playing around with three at the back (I previously failed miserably) in a new Ajax save. I'm going for a 3-4-3, which really looks like a 5-1-1-3.

Three central defenders, two inverted wingbacks to hopefully act like central midfielders to an extent, a regista at the DM position, then advanced playmaker in front of him.

It'll most likely implode.

[Krebstar]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

First game trying to create a Cruyff type of 3-4-3 with a diamond midfield, and what do ya know, inverted fullbacks really do the trick. Coming inside as two central midfielders when we have the ball. Hot damn.

I lost the possession battle massively, which I don't like seeing, but off to a good start, perhaps?

[Suntan Superman]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Jokes aside, has anyone seen a tactic to replicate Arsenal's new 3 at the back?

Yeah, it's hit and miss on FM, your wide midfielders get trapped a lot in awkward positions, no matter who's there. whether it has anything to do with ratings or not, I will say my back three of Rugani/Mustafi/Kos worked so much better with Kos in the middle. Mustafi(I believe) preferred to be in the middle but it never worked near as well. Having my second midfielder as DLP-Defend also really helped create a middle link between the defence and the midfield. Neves played really well after acquiring him spraying the ball all ways and connecting enough to make it very dangerous. I'm not a huge fan of two attacking midfielders, and I'm not sure I'd ever play two again, even when they're Mesut Ozil and James Rodriguez, lol.

[JHedges2]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Yeah, it's hit and miss on FM, your wide midfielders get trapped a lot in awkward positions, no matter who's there. whether it has anything to do with ratings or not, I will say my back three of Rugani/Mustafi/Kos worked so much better with Kos in the middle. Mustafi(I believe) preferred to be in the middle but it never worked near as well. Having my second midfielder as DLP-Defend also really helped create a middle link between the defence and the midfield. Neves played really well after acquiring him spraying the ball all ways and connecting enough to make it very dangerous. I'm not a huge fan of two attacking midfielders, and I'm not sure I'd ever play two again, even when they're Mesut Ozil and James Rodriguez, lol.

Yeah I think I'm going to try fooling around with something new.

Almost to the Jan transfer window...

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Operation Sports mobile app

[Suntan Superman]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Yeah I think I'm going to try fooling around with something new.

Almost to the Jan transfer window...

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Operation Sports mobile app

If you're playing with Arsenal, Reiss Nelson in year 2 does the job really well, Ox kept getting hurt, and I skipped over Walcott because his defensive stats are... well... mostly non-existent. Nelson improved a ton and filled in admirably. Ox is still generally my first choice though.

[Zac]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

All this tactical talk has reminded me how much I want them to implement team shapes next year. So we can set instructions for how the team plays with the ball vs without the ball. That would be huge.

[JHedges2]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

If you're playing with Arsenal, Reiss Nelson in year 2 does the job really well, Ox kept getting hurt, and I skipped over Walcott because his defensive stats are... well... mostly non-existent. Nelson improved a ton and filled in admirably. Ox is still generally my first choice though.

Thoughts here...?

[Kobalt]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

When playing 3 back, I always have to have the wide midfielders mark the opposing team's wingers/fullbacks or else the tactic just doesn't work since they don't defend at all.

Finished 10th in the league and lost in the Europa League final against Arsenal so no Europe for me next year. Then I sold everyone because I need the money for a new stadium.

[JHedges2]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Thoughts here...?

Bump...anyone? Thoughts/suggestions?

[Velocityy]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Took a bit of a break after winning the Vanarama South playoffs and playing the first 7 or so games in my first Vanarama National season. Really dug back in over the last week or so and now have just 2 games left in the season. I'm sitting in a safe 14th spot, although the board wanted a top half finish. I can still achieve that with a win in my final regular season game and some help...but not sure it'll happen.

I've had a VERY up and down season. From 7 game losing streaks, to 5 game winning streaks. I'm currently on a 5 game unbeaten run, but 4 are draws.

I've had to shift my tactics slightly multiple times as the losing streaks racked up...am now playing a standard/structured shorter passing/high pace style, which is very different from my counter/direct passing/be more expressive that I was playing early on.

The last game I have is actually the FA Trophy Final! I had no expectation of making this (and am kinda sad about it because some of my players have FA Trophy bonsues in their contracts lol) but still want to win now that I'm there.

I'm at a bit of a crossroads with some of my expiring contracts. There's a few that are solid players, but I'm not sure that I'll actually improve in the league with them on the team. My top RB, 3rd/rotational winger, 3rd/rotational midfielder, and 3rd/rotational CB are all on my personal chopping block.

I'm doing a bunch of scouting in those positions to see if I can grab a better player before fully committing to letting them go. Especially at RB. I'd like a guy who is more attacking minded with better crossing, but my current guy is decent. I'm pretty sure I'm going to release my 3rd winger because of his injury history, and I've found some good wingers who are better...and I have a very good up and coming U21 midfielder who I can replace my 3rd guy with. My 3rd CB is a decent player, but my 2 starters are much better at marking/heading/tackling (and in form), and am thinking I can find a 30+ year old vet who can be my backup and be better than the guy I have for cheaper.

Man, I love this game (and hate it..so so much haha).

[Suntan Superman]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Bump...anyone? Thoughts/suggestions?

I thought I had posted something last night, but I'm guessing something happened that it didn't go through, so that's kind of neat. I think you have a problem on your right with Walcott as a winger and Ox as a Complete Wing Back, they're basically occupying the same space, with Ox dropping a little deeper back. On the left it's a little more natural, as Monreal ends up occupying the space that Alexis vacates when he cuts inside. The space between Xhaka and Ozil could also be a problem, especially considering the only people you have as intermediaries are the full backs, meaning to start an attack, Xhaka will have to either hit Ozil in the middle or Monreal/Ox on the wings, there's no one for him to directly pass to start an attack. I might move him up into the midfield proper, still as a DLP, rather than sitting him back on top of the defence. With wing backs, I'd also have Giroud be a TM-A, rather than TM-S, Whipping in crosses from the side is probably going to end up being your most effective way of attacking, and having Giroud take those chances instead of having him attempt to lay it off is a good thing.

[NoDakHusker]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Well said, Suntan. I'll echo what you said about Xhaka and add to that. A DLP with a defend duty in the DM spot has him sitting very deep, which is alright when you don't have possession in covering your defenders, but this limits him when you do win the ball back.

I would use him as a DLP - with a defend or support duty - at CM. He'll still sit as a pseudo-DM when you don't have the ball, and when you do have it, he'll have more options going forward. Additionally, he has the preferred move "comes deep to get the ball," so naturally he ends up a bit deeper anyway(at least when your defenders win the ball back).